Highlighted Events

Pre-Texts at the Caixa

EduCaixa hosted a 15 hour Pre-Texts training workshop for their staff and partners. Click here to see a video of participants playing with the text Prometheus Bound.

Professor Doris Sommer also gave a talk entitled “Pre-Textos para todo, para todos” at the CaixaForum Madrid on Nov. 28th. CaixaForum Madrid is a 21st century sociocultural center which opens its doors to ancient, modern and contemporary art, music and poetry festivals, multimedia art, debates on current affairs, social conferences and family and educational workshops.
EduCaixa organized a round-table discussion entitled “Art and Education: Two Inseparable Disciplines” with Prof. Doris Sommer, founder of the Pre-Texts pedagogy, María Acaso, cultural producer and head of the Education Area of ​​the Reina Sofía Museum, and Leticia Flores, professor of Artistic Education and Creativity at Escuni University and coordinator of curARTE and enseñARTE.

Read more and watch a video of the talk and discussion here.Read more about the event here.

Pre-Texts Workshop at the ALARI First Continental Conference
on Afro-Latin American Studies

An introductory Pre-Texts workshop will be held at the ALARI First Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies on Thursday, Dec. 12th at 5:30pm in Boylston Hall, Room 403.

Read more and register here.

The ALARI First Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies
December 11-13, 2019 – Barker Center 9am-5pm

This gathering seeks to promote the academic field of Afro-Latin American Studies by fostering a necessary dialogue among actors involved in the production and implementation of academic and race justice agendas in Latin America.

The Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University is the first research institution in the United States devoted to the history and culture of peoples of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over 95 percent of the Africans forcibly imported into the Americas went to Latin America and the Caribbean, two thirds of them to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Many Hispanics in the United States are also of African descent. Cultural forms and community practices associated with Africa are conspicuous across the region – indeed, the very existence of Latin America would be unthinkable without them.

During the last few decades, Afro-Latin Americans have created numerous civic, cultural, and community organizations to demand recognition, equality and resources, prompting legislative action and the implementation of compensatory policies. The Afro-Latin American Research Institute stimulates and sponsors scholarship on the Afro-Latin American experience and provides a forum where scholars, intellectuals, activists and policy makers engage in exchanges and debates.

Read more about the ALARI First Continental Conference on Afro-Latin American Studies here.

Pre-Texts in Cluj, Romania
December 2019
Pre-Texts partners with the city of Cluj.

Cultural Agents in Lima, Peru
Prof. Doris Sommer and Jose Falconi will be visiting Lima in January 2020 to launch a project in
La Victoria, Lima.

Pre-Texts News

Pre-Texts in Colombia: La paz se toma la palabra

As part of the project La paz se toma la palabra with Banco de la República in Colombia, a series of Pre-Texts workshops were held in October. The workshops were open to cultural mediators from Cartagena, Barranquilla, Montería, Santa Marta, Riohacha San Andrés, Sincelejo, Valledupar and Bogotá. In November and December, the new Pre-Texts facilitators organized workshops in their communities, facilitating creative activities based on the local culture and practices of each region.

“Seguimos de cerca las actividades de multiplicación de Pre-Textos realizadas por las y los mediadores culturales de La paz se toma la palabra, nodo Caribe. Entre adultos mayores, jóvenes niños y niñas, quienes participaron en nuestro taller en Barranquilla en el mes de octubre, han generado actividades creativas e innovadoras en cada uno de sus territorios. Gracias por hacernos parte de su experiencia.”
– Fundación Agentes Culturales

Pre-Textos en Guayaquil, Ecuador

“Gracias a la invitación del Maestro Carlos García de la Universidad de Loja, tuvimos la oportunidad de presentar nuestro proyecto Pre-Textos ante los miembros de la Mesa de educación en valores que se realizó el pasado lunes 2 de diciembre en la ciudad de Guayaquil. La mesa contó con la presencia de personas muy importantes de la región, quienes están empeñadas en explorar diferentes alternativas para mejorar la calidad de la educación en el país. Por esta razón, la mirada de Pre-Textos, centrada en el desarrollo de las humanidades a través de la literaria y el arte resultó muy pertinente para los intereses de la Mesa. Se espera que las ideas compartidas en esta charla sean socializadas el miércoles 4 de diciembre en Quito ante la Ministra de Educación.”
– Victoria Mena

Pre-Textos en Buenos Aires

“El sábado 7 de diciembre nos encontramos para celebrar el trabajo realizado por facilitadores, facilitadoras y participantes de los talleres de Pre-Textos durante 2019 en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.En la Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno, expusimos y compartimos algunas de nuestras producciones. Poemas, juegos, fotos, cuentos, dibujos y distintas propuestas que surgieron gracias a la invitación de Pre-Textos a crear e imaginar a partir de los cuentos y poemas que leímos.  Además, aprovechamos para hacer Pre-Textos y conocer nuevos amigos y amigas de distintos barrios. Juntos hicimos un cierre musical en el que rapeamos e improvisamos con palabras del texto que acabábamos de leer.

Del encuentro de cierre de fin de año participaron los facilitadores Gonzalo Aguilar, Joana Bucca, Aldana Bucca, Liz Isacupe, Keren Isacupe, Vanina Dalto, Milagros Alizegui, Flavia Helguero, Leonardo Sabbatella, Tálata Rodríguez y Mixtli Cano Moreno. Alejo Ospina y Axel Contreras, los músicos invitados,
propusieron el cierre musical.”
– Mixtli Cano Moreno

Click here to watch a video about Pre-Texts in Argentina.

Featured News

Think/Write/Speak: Activism in Action

Join the Bostonian Society and nomadic arts incubator Brown Art Ink for a workshop on raising your voice for local issues.

Boston has a deep and unique history of public oration as a means of protest and activism. The upcoming workshops come at the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre and the death of Crispus Attucks in 1770. These orations gave voice to the hopes and fears of early Americans in the wake of violence, and their annual resurgence helped galvanize public sentiment at the dawn of the Revolution. In public speeches more than 80 years later, anti-slavery leaders once again invoked the story of Crispus Attucks, the first man to fall at the Massacre, to stir the spirit of freedom against the institution of slavery.

Using this history as our starting point, staff of Brown Art Ink will lead participants in an interactive exercise to bring the tradition of orations into the present day.

The December 14 workshop will be the first of three, with additional public workshops to follow into 2020. Select participants from these workshops may be invited to deliver their original works at the 2020 Boston Massacre commemoration.

Saturday, December 14, 2019, 3pm – 4:30pm
The Commonwealth Salon at the Boston Public Library

To register for this event please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thinkwritespeak-activism-in-action-tickets-83884678331